Thank you Medina voters!
WHY RICHARD J. MARCO JR. SHOULD
NOT BE ELECTED JUDGE
OF MEDINA MUNICIPAL COURT, OHIO
Dear Medina County voter,
If you have found this page via Google or some other source you are obviously a citizen concerned about public integrity in a state where an increasing amount of public officials from the governor on down seem to lack it.
Next month, a prominent local attorney named Richard J. Marco Jr. wants you to elect him to the local bench on the grounds that he is one of the people who can restore Ohioans’ trust in the government.
Don’t let him deceive you as he has helped Denise Hubbard, the director of Building Blocks Adoption Services, deceive and defraud so many of her agency’s clients. Don’t elect him to anything. (You can read our story, and theirs’, starting from our home page).
On this website you will find evidence of Marco’s past willingness to aid and abet BBAS’s corruption and deceit.
MARCO IS FAR MORE INVOLVED WITH BBAS THAN MERELY BEING THE AGENCY’S ATTORNEY:
Marco has claimed to us and others that he is just Building Blocks’ lawyer, that he really has nothing to do with its daily operations. And indeed he has never been listed as an officer or director of the agency in any of its filings
Yet, in the agency’s own board minutes filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services as part of their relicensing application every two years, Rick is recorded as second only to Denise Hubbard as setting policy and making suggestions — in fact, the only other person besides Hubbard doing so. In fact, in May 1999 he even traveled to Bulgaria with her and then made several more trips to Bulgaria in 2000 and 2001. Why? International law is not his specialty, and he knows nothing of Bulgarian language and culture.
Can he give the citizens of Medina County his judicial best if he is constantly having to travel overseas to bail BBAS out of the messes Denise Hubbard keeps getting it in?
MARCO WRITES IMPOLITE AND ABUSIVE LETTERS ON BEHALF OF BBAS TO AGGRIEVED CLIENTS:
It is unfortunate that you continue to raise an adversarial relationship with Building Blocks Adoption Services, while continuing to use those services. Had you had such a problem with them then perhaps you should have terminated the adoption process at some time in the past. We will continue to honor our responsibilities to you, but will not provide any services beyond the completion of the adoption of your son.
Yes, you read that right. Rick Marco thinks maintaining a healthy business relationship takes precedence over the interests of a child.
Further, the child was in fact adopted and returned to the United States. The completion of the contract by Building Blocks Adoption Service has been satisfied. The child was surrendered to the care of a private agency and has once again gone through the process of adoption.
It is not my understanding that you were given a line of spiritual benefits. It is also not my understanding that there were a contrived manner of orphanage visits of withholding of pertinent information. The child was not misrepresented. The credentialing of the agency was not misrepresented.
In addition, by the way, this sentence contains a willful misstatement of fact that will be discussed later.
MARCO WAS COMPLICIT IN DECEIVING THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE ... AND POSSIBLY DEFRAUDING THE PUBLIC
In 2000, Marco and Hubbard incorporated a now-defunct charity they called the International Concerns for Children Fund, Inc. Unlike BBAS, Marco was listed as an officer, making him liable and responsible for ICCF’s actions. ICCF even used Marco’s office address.
For a year or two, Denise promoted contributions to ICCF as being tax-deductible despite the fact that they had never applied to the IRS for 501(c)(3) status, a serious violation of the Tax Code. Nor had they registered it with the Ohio Attorney General’s office as required by state law. After the IRS was made aware of this situation, solicitations ceased and the incorporation lapsed this past summer.
How did Rick Marco, a licensed attorney, allow this to continue? What does this say about his character and fitness for a judgeship?
There is also no evidence that anything ICCF was claiming to have bought for a Bulgarian orphanage ever actually got there, and one instance in which surgery Hubbard claimed to have paid for was actually paid for by another organization. What does Marco know about ICCF? Shouldn’t he answer those questions if he wants to be a judge?
MARCO IS A BAD LAWYER
A former client, Dale Edwards, sued Marco and his then-partner Steven Bailey in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for legal malpractice in the early 1990s. While it was settled out of court in 1998, the fact that it was filed at all and went as far as it did is striking, because legal malpractice actions are as rare as hens’ teeth. What does that tell you about Marco’s abilities as a lawyer?
MARCO STOOD BY AND DID NOTHING WHILE DENISE HUBBARD FIRED HIS EX-WIFE
On October 30, 2000, Rick’s then-wife Cynthia was summarily fired as director of Building Blocks Adoption Service. Despite his influence over Denise Hubbard, he let this happen.
Faced with a choice between his wife and his client, his wife lost. Some husband. Some man.
MARCO IS COMPLICIT IN BBAS’S REPEATED LYING AND DISSEMBLING TO THE STATE AND THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU
The letter to the disrupting family above refers to BBAS’s credentialing not being misrepresented. This is a reference to the complainants’ accurate and truthful claim that BBAS is not accredited to do adoptions in Russia under that country’s law. In fact, an email from BBAS’s Wendy Stamper to the adopting couple prior to their trip to Russia explicitly instructed them not to use the agency’s name in any dealings with Russian officials ... a situation which would not happen if BBAS were not sending the couple to Russia under the guide of an American agency accredited in Russia.
In fact, the whole letter is riddled with too many lies, distortions and misrepresentations to recount here.
Does any man who would do this deserve to be a judge?
MARCO MAY HAVE SUBORNED PERJURY BY DENISE HUBBARD AND HER SISTER
In late 2001 yet more disgruntled BBAS clients, Constance and Alan Bady, brought a small-claims suit in the very court Marco now desires to sit in, for a refund they should have been granted without even having to file suit.
They had to represent themselves, and lost. But a large part of that was due to the magistrate in the case, Linda Leggett, taking Denise and her assistant Wendy Stamper at their word when they testified under Marco’s questioning that the Badys had been sent a lengthy email further outlining the terms at issue, an email they didn’t produce a hard copy of, and one the Badys had no recollection of ever receiving.
Lawyers are forbidden by ethical canons from presenting testimony by witnesses they know to be making false statements. In this case, Marco had a duty to at least make sure he could produce a hard copy of the email whether he was asked for it or not. He was negligent at best and undeserving of his bar card at worst. He does not deserve to be a judge.
MARCO IS AFRAID OF BEING HELD ACCOUNTABLE
Next time you see Richard Marco, ask him why he doesn’t live in his old house.
You see, when he was married to his first wife, Cynthia, the house was owned in her name and her name alone. Not a good move if your marriage suddenly falls apart, as it did in 2003.
Why? Marco’s family owns several other pieces of property in and around Medina, including the building at 52 Public Square where his law offices are. He certainly can’t be averse to having his name on a deed.
You know what kind of person puts property in their spouse’s name. Someone afraid of losing it. Someone who knows that property can be seized to satisfy a legal judgement against them. Someone fearful that they have done something that might put them on the losing end of such a judgement. People like drug dealers, tax cheats and high-ranking Mafia figures. Certainly not someone who wants to be a judge.
Richard Marco is, or at least was, a pretty competent lawyer. Most competent lawyers own their own homes and have other ways of shielding themselves from tax or estate problems that might arise. Obviously Richard Marco had some other issues which required greater protection.
MARCO MAY BE SKIMMING MONEY THAT SHOULD GO TO GUATEMALAN ORPHANS
When a BBAS client found that attorneys for the agency in Guatemala were routinely getting $2,000 less from American clients for completing adoptions than they had been led to believe by the agency, he asked Rick Marco what happened to the extra money.
“It’s none of your business,” where the money goes, Marco told him. Such a perfect answer for someone wanting to be a judge and uphold the law. Does this seem kosher?
It gets worse. When they went to Guatemala to bring their child home, they learned that this money, collected by BBAS in Ohio, had never been sent to Guatemala at all. Where did it go?
If he really wants the job, Marco should come clean and make full disclosure. It would be a real shame if he was forced to do under oath during an investigation and really embarrass Medina and its citizens.
***
Save yourself and your city. Solidly defeat Rick Marco and return him to private practice this Nov. 8. You do not want a man with a proven lack of integrity sitting on your bench.
Sincerely,
Daniel and Elizabeth Case